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From: leocine
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  • Hey, thannks for posting this. I remember watching this video when I first joined Youtube. I knew that it would come in handy dandy at some point. ;)

    PMOW

  • Now, all we have are underdeveloped men and self=exploiting women, calling themselves "artists", selling out into the system to get paid, all sounding the same, rapping about the same, and being the same joke of the season before their time is up in the industry.

  • Thank you for perfectly explaining why Hip Hop is extinct. Sadly, even in the Hip Hip culture, eventually money, fame, and greed trumped substance, education, and enlightenment. The majority of rap music's consumers are White, middle-class males, and they certainly don't want to hear nothing about Black people's liberation and empowerment. So there goes the quality of what used to be the rap genre down the toilet while corporate execs who write the checks happily flush.

  • She is so full of shit. I would love to count the ways but this is the youtube comment section, it's better suited for statements than anything else. It's hardly the place for a major write-up. It's bullshit 'sociology' like this which is the folcrum of disastrous conclusions.

  • Google search 'bell hooks Pt 7 cultural criticism (KIDS)' to find the censored part.

  • Youtube won't allow posting part 7 But you can Google it and find it easily.

  • I really like this and it's so incredibly intelligent. I really wish we could have seen part 7. Does anyone know why youtube took it down?

  • This is so amazing. I just showed this to my class of Undergraduates. Most were amazed and asked to borrow my Out Law Culture copy. haha. One of the best and most insightful thinkers of our day.

  • This is brilliant but im laughing at the same time when she says "hot pussy"

  • Her analysis in the last 90 seconds of the video is the most original and insightful interpretation of hip-hop I have heard to date.

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  • brilliant.....!!!

  • Thank You for the video!!

  • she be deep and on point....simple...

  • She sounds well and good but she doesn't know what she's talking about half the time. Many of the images are out of context. It's easy to come up with Marxist cultural theory and then find examples that you can fit into your thesis. She's out of line on so many fronts. Just as she claims others see things through misogynistic white lenses, she sees things through an elite academic terrestrially removed lens. Other than criticize others in books or the classroom what has she done for society??

  • @jscott181 you could ask the same question of any other theorist. What has Butler done for society, Foucault, Kristeva, Lacan etc. What have they done for society? They have just presented there own framework for which to view the world. I mean it is just as easy for you to attack with that silly line, but it would be better to come up with something better then it is out of context. She is drawing from her own experiences as well as observations just like any other theorist

  • @fleurgi Except that I didn't leave it at "that silly line". I said she takes things out of context and speaks on matters that she has no knowledge of. It's her hustle. Yes, I could extend that same criticism to other theorist and I do. Not that they can't add to society but the ones who truly do are few and far between. Of course you can never convince them or their followers of that. And even that is ok because when their bs is called out we move forward. Just calling out the bs.

  • @jscott181 Ok with no intention of offence may you please share or point out to me the matters she has no knowledge of? Or what in particular is bs because I honestly think she has some good points. I am writing a paper on her at my professors request so I think hearing the reasons behind your opinion would be interesting.

  • @fleurgi I could go on but I'm limited to 500 characters. In this clip, she isn't male and she's not a part of the hip hop community. She's not in a position to understand it fully. She may be able to speak on how it makes her feel but she stretches when she tries to prove intent and she dissolves the autonomy of the consumer. Just as I can't psychoanalyze you w/o knowing you. I don't know what she's talking about rape being the norm either??? Feel free to send me a message if you want

  • Yeah, where is part 7?

  • One could also argue that in many sectors of the black community that modernism and a revolutionary racial and cultural consciousness never quite caught on. Many black people in the masses were never educated into a higher racial consciousness. Most rappers come from impoverished backgrounds where education and social mores are sorely lacking. Therefore the crude and degenerate behavior that permeates rap. White society will always follow black music movements even if they are destructive.

  • Most rappers are crack babies from the ghetto. When black people were more moral we got farther but we always want to turn our back on Allah and his ways and then we wonder why we fall. Who cares what other people are doing? We are supposed to be holy and follow the ways of Allah and not sell out our holiness for a dollar.

  • @khepera89 It is true that many white people consume rap music and videos, but what about the black people who make and produce the images, music, etc. Are they free from criticism? I would think not. And what does she think of the inner-city kids who actually live out these scenarios? It reeks of hypocrisy. A great critic sees the whole picture and criticizes the entire subject and all involved.

  • @jcclarkeru she said exactly what you just said. Are you trying to plagiarize Hooks? I don't believe you listened a full premise, followed by conclusion, Hooks has had to say. Maybe you need to turn up your volume..... or read one of her books if your capable of doing that.

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  • Color caste systems are being overtly affirmed.

    I've said this years ago.

    Mainstream media is re-introducing this idea into our minds. Just look at the fact that the music industry & Hollywood ONLY showcases light-skinned/ or mixed women in the forefront.

    Most Black men who "favor" that say things like "oh, its just a preference".

    But thats mental conditioning.

    Yes, Black people support these images,... but thats because we've been conditioned by the powers who control our society.

  • the problem i see in this comment is that bell hooks criticizes racism on the one hand and on the other she falls into etnocentrism. her continual mentioning of "third world" visions is also stereotyped and actually racist. what she analizes happens in the US so why keep comparing it with supposed "third world" visions? this sucks, specially because it pretends to be anti-racist when in truth falling back into it through the other side

  • lol. you said it yourself. they're selling this crud to mid-late teen white suburb brats. They only make money if they tickle these horny little brats boners, hence the "whitened" black women. If getting privileged white kids off wasn't the money maker, then it'd be a whole different game. My soul hurts. Support for making the world a better place.

  • No one can maintain with a straight face that modern rap is not an abomination. The videos, in particular, are seething with obscene language and imagery. The presentation of women in these videos is, to put it mildly, regrettable, for these women are difficult to distinguish from your ordinary "lady of the night." Moreover, the obsession with violence amounts to a glorification of it. And to top it all off, rap music seems to have become mainstream. Oh, the horrors!

  • wow. everything she says just makes too much sense.

  • I think bell hooks has her mind on the pulse of these critical issues but I find her analysis very one-sided. She is right in that young white consumers help to perpetuate - in this case rap - many negative depictions of black americans but what about the black americans who consume, create, produce and perpetuate this same cultural phenomenon? Are they totally exonerated? If anything that reduces many black americans to irresponsible, greedy individuals. Why doesn't she criticize that?

  • @jcclarkeru white consumers make up OVER 2\3 of rap and hip hop consumers. She is speaking to the overwhelming majority.

  • @jcclarkeru She addressed that exact issue in part 5, see 'bell hooks Pt 5 cultural criticism (madonna)' and go to 4:40.

  • @Veggiewarriors: whites determine what gets commodified in America, therefore if you are going to dislike anyone for the portrayal of women in media, blame the white men who pay to see them reduced to sex objects, whites = 70% of the US population

  • The moral of the story is mainstream hip hop has become a minstrel show designed to make blacks look ghetto, and white youth control what hip hop artists do by virtue of thier purchasing power

  • Rebel Diaz, Dead Prez

    that's where it's at. groups that end in a "z" is the key!

  • Loves your talk. Keep it up.

  • if light skinned black women are portrayed as desirable objects in rap, isn't "whiteness" the real thing that's being comodified?

    White people (women) should be as offended by black people.

  • moreover white people LOVE harmless non-threatening de la soul style performers and so-called 'intellectual' hip-hop. If they're scared of black men that's better than if they think everything is fine.

  • i liked the bit about primativism but i don't agree that rap is sexist or obscene. WHITE europeans decided sex is obscene and for men to declare sexual interest is mysogyny, other cultures have other ideas. why should rappers accept white ideas of appropriate sexuality?? she is colonised herself looking at rap from the point of view of white america.

    it is also untrue that dark skinned women are not objectified in videos but it is rue about their hair.

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  • Well it's certainly become a reality. Life has officially imitated art.

  • @skape101 Call THAT art?!...

  • Rap culture sucks ass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    How the fuck did this lowlife shit get so popular?

  • If any body needs a contrast then watch these videos!

  • "color caste system" are you kidding me? Comparing what happened to the untouchables in India to some people not getting to be in a rap video? This is completely absurd.

  • @AarontheCurious Caste is another word for class and doesn't have to refer to India in its use.

  • Why don't they ever critique conscious rap and underground rap...or real lyricists for that matter.

    With stuff like this they always take the dance/strip club type songs to say OMG RAP IS SO BAD!!!

    She should listen to Nas, ATCQ, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli etc. and then say rap is all about naked females.

  • In Atlanta there is two stations "WHERE HIP-HOP LIVES". they don't play ANY music by white artists. there isn't a single DJ on either station that is not black. They don't even take call requests from White Callers.... They play the most plastic, superficial, materialistic, consiously dead music, 24/7... Black people need to take responsibility for their actions... call out there own people. I love Hip-Hop music but the stuff that comes out nowdays... I can't even relate.

  • Wow she blames white kids for the reason why gangsta rap is popular. You said u live in the south?... come to the ghetto of Atlanta, it's blacks, riding around in cars blasting the most mysoginistic, materialistic, rape and pillage rap music on the planet. They don't listen to conscious hip-hop. They don't listen to Tribe Called Quest... They couldn't rap a Public Enemy Verse... They could rap an entire Gucci Mane song about taking ecstasy, getting head and driving hummers.

  • @skape101 Didn't she say that rappers talk about this stuff in their lyrics because it is what sells, even if they don't hold those values? The problem is when it becomes real and worse, normal.

  • @skape101 the ATL must be where the 30 percent of non-white rap fans live. And you're right, it is a ghetto!

  • I wish there were more of the cultural criticism. I can't get enough of this discussion.

  • gangsta rap rulz da world yo....

  • i like this lady, shes cool, not like other people not understandin wats up wit the world

  • this is cool people should listen to trcks from the coup like 'i aint the nigga' and 'not yet free'

  • Rap is simple couplets. Get off Whites. You forget it was the blacks in Africa that sold slaves to the sea captain. The blacks are selling crack all over the nation and many are getting caught. That's why there are so many negroes in prison. The lady in yellow most likely prefers relationships within her own gender....Rap is not music.

  • this woman is a genius!!!! if only there were more people like her in america!

  • gangsta rap music ruined black culture

  • where is part 7?

  • wow

  • I have to pause this video half way through to say "This woman is a genius!"

  • What did I, a white suburban male, get most energized by in rap music?

    Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy - music directed toward a socially constructive end.

    ...unless you count that Mickey Mouse and Friends rap album that I listened to when I was 6. That sh** was dope!

  • Where is part 7...why the heck is it gone and what was so important to censor...that sucks youtube

  • @berrygirlfinn Part 7, talks about the movie KIDS, nd I think the ending scene in which the girl was getting raped is what hooks focuses on.

  • @berrygirlfinn You can find it if you look through Google's first page of results from searching bell hooks part 7. I don't give the actual site because after watching it I know exactly why they censored it and don't want to put that webmaster on the spot.

  • @writerschocolate cheers, you were completely right

  • @berrygirlfinn tackles the issue of indoctrinating kids and voyeurism and the marketing of race link mmatining.multiply.com/video/i­tem/7

  • @CostlyChris Thanks, great link!

  • Would a rap song titled "All You Need Is Love" be dismissed as fluff because it's unrealistic in this day and age? Or it's not "hard" enough?

  • (Cont). When I first came in contact with rap in the late '80s it had too many "coolness credentials" for me. I've always been a lover of rock music from the '60s/'70s and eventually everything that led up to that music; blues, folk, etc. To me a lot of that music represented a giving away of self, whereas rap presents a building up of self, and not necessarily in a good way. Very ME centered. The act of loving your fellow man through music translates better when sung in harmony I think.

  • I disagree that rap is diverse. You can only do so much with someone laying on a street jive over sampled beats. I agree that what makes the charts is just candy floss. 50 Cent and all that crap. You can find "better" rap artists searching through the underground but to me it's pointless. The problem I've ALWAYS had with rap is that is has always taken you to be a person in a certain mold with a certain attitude to do it. It's the false sense of self that I don't like in rap music.

  • Maybe youv'e missed Ms.Hook's point:the very mainstreamization of commodified 'blackness' means precisely that black music must function within the narrowest of cultural parameters in order to be considered legitimately 'black',and therefore desirable for adventurous white-suburban consumers.

    Indeed,as a long time rap consumer I can tell you first hand that if all you know of hip hop is street slang & sampled beats then your'e one curiously underexposed music lover...

  • ...Hip Hop certainly has its share of draconian rituals & bylaws,& its taste for bold egocentricity is one of them.

    But that egocentricity is alot more complex than many are willing to acknowledge.

    The 'coolness' of hip hop at its core is simply a matter of acknowledging your sense of self worth--inspite of being broke,disabled,incarcerated,un­educated,underpriviledged,down and out,weird,crazy,unattractive,s­trange,hopeless,or whatever's the source of your alienation.

  • If I am an "underexposed" music lover as you suggest, then how far must I dig to find rap or hip-hop that is actually worth the merit that I find in bluesmen like Leadbelly or Sonny Terry, folk like Odetta, Guthrie, or Dylan, soul like I find in Aretha or Otis.

  • As far as your fingertips(I could spend all day refering you to a wide range of artists.)

    But if you're simply partial to a certain of sound then I can't help you.

    The question was simply with regard to what kinds of rap get peddled to the masses & whether or not their exists a musical counterpoint within the style.

  • Sorry--'...certain(kind)of sound...'

  • simply brilliant!

  • The kids listen to the rap music. THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE JAZZ IS ALL ABOUT

    - Bill Cosby

  • Good thing I listen to good ol fashion Heavy Metal XD \m/

  • does anyone know where part 7 is? if u do, can u let me know. peace

  • as usual, she's on point.

  • Bell Hooks is here to speak on feminist matters, racism, and capitalism as they pertain to black people not Asians, whites, Natives, or any other group. She is fully capable of speaking on the issues of white women but that's not what this segment is about. It is not a conspiracy to leave out white women.  This is a cultural examination of African-Americans experiences and semiotic representation in media.

  • My only problem with her logic is that she acts like Hip-hop is the only musical genre this has happened to, and that the genre is somehow special because it's a 'black' genre.

    It irritates me a bit that the VERY SAME THING has happened to almost every popular genre in history, yet it apparently only really matters when it happens to a BLACK genre.

    Is it so hard to instead be bothered when ANY women are treated this way? Why are black women somehow special?

  • Did you not see the part of the interview in which she discussed the domestic abuse of Nicole Brown-Simpson?

  • I don't think that at all. She does address other artists like Madonna, I just think you will find her to be more informative if you research more of her work, rather than basing her theories on this one video.

  • @outlier1985-The reason she's speaking about hip hop or "black women" as you say , is because as rap music has become a juggernaut ! Generating billions of dollars for many people. However as an off shoot ,it's also being blamed for the downfall of our society! when the truth is ,as long as people consume the worst manifestations of rap,(misogyny, violence , materialism, ) the power that be , will keep peddling it to the masses. Rap as a genre is not inherently bad. There are plenty of -

  • In other vids she does make references to white women. I am white and believe Hooks is a brilliant woman, because she addresses the issues evoking controversy in our community, rather than avoiding them like so many people do.

  • Ten minutes, which could all be summed up in one sentence; IT SELLS BECAUSE WHITE SUBURBAN KIDS WANT IT.

    And I love how this all circles back around to become just another stick with which to beat capitalism. Say what you want, but this is opposed to socialism, wherein there'd be no music AT ALL.

  • Going further... does she think what rap has become is anything NEW? What's happened to rap has happened to ALMOST EVERY GENRE in existence. In the beginnings of a new genre, there are innovators and brilliance... this is followed by a period of maturation with new acts that push the envelope even further. Then the labels get wind of a new trend and BAM. Commercialized, watered-down bullshit.

    But only when it happens to RAP, is it somehow a symptom of racism and a sick society?

  • And one last thing... you could look at Heavy Metal. It went from groups like Sabbath and Iron Maiden in the 70's to shit groups like Poison and Whitesnake in the 80's. Hair Metal bands had white women dressed the same way and acting almost the same in their videos as the rappers did. Where are the cries of white women being objectified? Apparently people only give a crap when black women are being objectified.

    Bottom line: Hooks' entire argument is biased and full of holes. The end.

  • @outlier1985

    Well, there is a some backlash against this, too. But I think what you've missed out on is that Hooks is picking up on something very historical. The Black female body has often been exoticized, fed to the White (usually) Male gaze. White is the default. Black is the exception, and when it is shown, it is shown as an exotic, different Other.

    White women do not have to deal with this problem; they have White privilege. So if we talk about this, we can't be colourblind.

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  • @outlier1985

    Did you forget about Democratic Socialism?

  • love hip hop?check out my vids on graff writing. support the arts. peace.

  • Wow she is full of sh*t.

  • Rap music has changed so much over the years. Personally I think the originals like Too Short, Tupac, Biggie, E-40, Snoop really defined what rap is all about. I saw real rap music videos by searching (rap themusicage) on Google

  • where's part 7 ??

  • I particularly liked her points about the de facto caste system regarding complexion and 'blackness' as a commodity-which is another manifestation of the myth of the single racial identity...or plain old stereotyping.

  • @AcousticUplift

    Yup. Blackness because the "Other", while Whiteness is just the default. It's been tested again and again and again in social psychology and sociology. It's impossible to deny it.

  • I feel like her message is compromised by the constant booty-montage in the background.

  • It`s funny two days ago i say Bell driving in " berea " in her BMW convertible. She looked like she was" flossin" pretty hard.

    by the way flossin is slang for showing bling bling . lol

  • bell, your fabulous. everyone check out dr. frances cress welsing, The Isis Papers: Keys to the Colors.

  • i don't see how you can be all into bell hooks and not have the slightest inkling that cress welsing is about as toxic to gay people of color as it's possible to be.

    a little consistency is nice.

  • Amazing, rap as a product and blackness as a commodity, all of which reside in a capitalistic market designed, constructed, and deconstructed by strategic choices, driven by profit

  • agreed agreed agreed. especially on the consumption of commodified blackness

  • I am white from a middle-class background and I agree with bell hooks:

    Rappers make music that sells.

    They sell a lot of it to white consumers with money who commodify blackness for their own purposes and like to see naked women. Especially "exotic" ones.

    Women degraded. Culture deteriorates. Stereotypes reinforced. No progress.

  • If you would have actually listened to what she had to say, you would have realized that your statement is completely wrong. She is analyzing our culture and the institutions within it that are CAUSING RACIST VIEWS. Open up your mind next time and try not to be racist and sexist yourself.

  • Bad Brains is a " black " band and it is one of my favorits and they don`t sing about money and violence, but the music is hardcore punk and I love it!!! Rap is boring talk.

  • I love Bad Brains but they were homophobic as fuuucccck. This was due to their fundamentalist Rastafarian beliefs, not the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

    Bell Hooks rules by the way.

  • this is why i listen to real rap underground, i listen to the guy down the street and not to the mainstream rap type of music...

    so simple like that and u know what?

    I LOVE IT..

  • Rap music is the worst thing that ever happened to the african american culture. In fact the (C)Rap culture has degraded blacks in general. Rap music is a vice so the poorly educated won't even pick-up a book to read. In another 3-5 years, most rappers education will be on the 2nd or

    3rd grade level if that high. IF YOU WANT TO HIDE SOMETHING FROM A CERTAIN GROUP OF PEOPLE, PUT IT IN A BOOK! And that's a RAP.

  • For one thing you have to understand. Look at the people who listen to or sing rap. Pants hanging down, no education. But it's called Hip Hop. HIP HOP, HOW ABOUT A BOOK HOP. What me read, no that would not be good. Cause then I could get a real job, maybe at KFC. AND MISS OUT ON DEGRADING WOMEN, SMOKING THE STUFF, DRINKING TIL THE EARLY MORN, UNTHINKABLE!!!! Part of your comment I did read in a magazine.

  • congratulations on being uneducated and racist yourself.

  • you don't know people of color intimately.

  • i agree. you can say rap music is wrong and is the worst music out there but there IS a market for it. I personally think it's entertaining. It's just like the tabloids & TMZ, it's complete garbage, complete bullshit, & it has no educational value, but it sells & fills the pockets of the capitalist. ....It does have it's purpose, example: if i'm driving to a night club, am i gonna play Mozart? HELL (to the) NAA!.i dont see why there is a black and white issue when white america is selling it.

  • Thanks for the base, superficial apology Hooks

  • Where is PART SEVEN

  • Personally I think bell hooks makes a lot of good points but cannot see anything in life without blaming white people. It is unfortunate about her

    "experiences" that she has had, but she cannot look past it like our generation today. I think rap is great music and a rappers sales are based on their talent and not what white suburbia wants to listen to in their moms minivan.

  • shes talking about the majority of the consumers of the type of rap music that gets air play. . . which are white males. so if we want to critisize the music, we have to look at it from a suppy and demand stand point. if this is the type of rap that is in demand, we cant marginalize blacks and say oh they like that shitty sexist music, no actually its mostly the white demographic that buys the sexist coon like depictions of rappers

  • Perhaps you missed the part where she basically states that blacks preoccupation with race limits discussion to this one dimension when there is so much more to consider. That's what she meant by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. It broadens the discussion to include the interplay of sexism, capitalism, and the idolization of whiteness globally... You missed what she was saying. As far as rap, she points out that what sells musically is what reinforces whte suprem. capit. partr.

  • we may not like what rap music and what they talk about that truth and a reflection of our selfves and world

  • thats not what shes saying at all. shes saying its been commercialized and pre packaged according to the demane of the consumers buying it, mainly white males. so you can thank that demographic for the shit thats spilling out of the radio waves

  • rap music is an intellectual music, however when it is articulated with intellectual/spiritual vigor, verbal dexterity and a glorification of blackness over the ghetto it is marginalized and pushed to the periphery of mainstream media. 60% of rap consumers are 18-24 male, typically sub-urban youth. This demographic does not care about a Socratic examination of white supremacy or black men and women respecting themselves...

  • How can you say rap is "intellectual" compared to the music of Jazz or Classical? There is simply no comparison at all. Listen to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Al Di Meola or composers like Sibelius, Wagner or Mahler and then try and say that rap is intellectual. Rap is simply product wrapped up in a package to spoon feed to the masses. It offers nothing.

  • I consider rap music.. more like fun music. I like to listen to it in the car or at a party. But I can't lay down or listen to it casually and enjoy it. I prefer more intelligent music when it comes to those kind of things.

  • I forgot to as you what white supremist reading material on black society you recomend. Seriously, i will look it up?

  • bonesteeve - take your white hood off man! Too bad the people in your "hood" dont know about your racism, if they did i bet you wouldnt still be writing all your nonsense on here.

  • tttt

  • i blame women for perpertrating sexism against females...raise the standards

  • Why is their so much anti-black talk? Everytime i come here i see more racist remarks coming from white people. If you white racists ever knew, were friends with, or read anything about black people, colonialism, slavery,& white supremacy-you would not make these hate filled, bigoted remarks. If you ever came out of from behind the computer screen, i a white male would b more than willing to stand in solidarity w/ any black person to confront your ignorance and shallowness once & for all!

  • thanks for your li'l ra-ra speech about standing in solidarity, though; were you to be even somewhat sincere, you'd move your lily-white ass down to an all-black neighborhood (known as projects or ghettos where i live - and i don't go NEAR them) and contribute your efforts to bringing the heathens up to a living standard closer to what most civilized society expects. i have made my choice: i choose any group that refuses to make excuses for their lot in life.

  • HI!!

  • bell hooks is spot on. and that's from a suburban white boy hip-hop listener who was attracted to hip-hop by the 'pugilistic violence' of the so-called east v. west rap wars.

    It's a larger problem of consumer-culture, that people can associate with a cultural niche like rap without making any real commitment other than spending the money to buy a song, and can then abandon it later on as social conformity neccesitates.

  • This is so interesting, thank you so much for posting it..

    it was enlightening

  • The Honourable Bell Hooks is an intellectual Giant compared to the many midgets who are making rude comments about her insightfulness. There is something worrying when a person who is not trained in thermo-dynamics tries to argue against some one who has a PH.D in it. Further, Bell Hooks does not , and rarely ever, engages in INTELLECTUAL MASTURBATION - she gives REAL INSIGHT into real things. While I encourage critical responses, please respond critically post-deep thought. Peace

  • Bla bla before you speak about something. Know your facts!!!. First: maybe its 90% whites that buys rap music. Thats not the same as that 90% of the listeners are white. It has never been. And now with the internet thing (downloading etc) the audience is much wider the WHITES. Excuse my grammar im not from Usa. "Watch Gangster Rap Made me do it" With Ice Cube he will put it down for you.

  • mmmmmmmmmmmm she said fuck a woman.

  • Wow that last point speaks volumes 2 me, the amount of white people that i have met along the way that used to hip hop or be interested in black culture who are now in the nice white lives listening to different music have nice incomes &hardly hav any black friends anymor. A DJ guy i no a white guy really realy likes hip hop and other 'black genres he says that how he leaned about black culture but when you ask them whether thay would marry a black woman they recoil or squirm exotic 3rd world.

  • You're kind of proving your point. Judging "white" people by this ONE guy you know is called, you guessed it, racism.

  • that's deep

  • Hooks is just letting women know that they do not have to bow to the ideal standard of beauty in our society. You can't deny that that ideal is prevalent in our society and is constantly perpetuated. She is not saying black women are sluts or that there is something wrong with being sexy. It's this idealized vision that is prepetuated by the media being television, music, magazines. That we need to realize is not accurate and causes men and women controversy.

  • The majority of black males don't have the buying power to constitute the majority of rap music consumers.

  • She's wrong? I don't think she is speaking in terms of right and wrong, she is giving a perspective, one that is helpful in broadening are own. You don't need to discredit or devaluate her words, only to examine them and see where they fit in our own world view.

  • Does everyone see this comment? This is what a lot of women have to put up with whenever they seek to express an opinion. They're attacked sexually, demeaned, and marginalized.

    Good job, karimme. You proved the femminist right in many respects.

  • Society has left women little choice in the matter, Karimme. And your comments demonstrate that. Whenever a woman tries to do something for themselves, they have to face being sexualized. So what do most women do? They sell themselves. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with a person doing what they want with their body, but when people like you Karimme leave women little choice in the matter, by always sexualizing them, there are few avenues most women can take to acieve any respect.

  • This woman was by no means ugly in her heyday. But that's really besides the point because what you're saying is a load of shit. She's telling the truth and you can't handle it.

  • Karimme, again, I don't know if your real experience in this world matches what your saying about hooks. You say that, "girls Want to be sexy when they can", but first of all, are you a female, if not, how could possibly know what women want? Secondly, you seemed to be preoccupied with the topic of sex, that is what all your comments are about or focus on. Take some time to reflect on WHAT YOU SAY, and WHAT YOU DO!

  • I know a lot of women, including my 2 sisters, and I doubt all of them take so much effort and time trying to look good ONLY because society forces them to...although I do understand that the media does INFLUENCE them ON THE WAY they should be sexy...maby, just maby, I talk about the topic of sex because this is what she talks about in this video! don't you think???

  • no she is talking about how rap has affected society (mostly in a negative way) and how being a 'nigga from da hood' has become a desirable pseudo-lifestyle by many whites of america. rap music deserves its own auience, but that audience is like 90% suburban whites that should be listening to something that actually inspi